Some local kids made a series of congratulatory drawings for the woman with Spokane roots recently selected for an elite astronaut training program.

One 10-year-old boy wrote, “Be the first girl on mars!”

The U.S. might not have a space vehicle right now. But it still has some pretty great children.

This goes off the rails at the end: But Visit Spokane’s Tim Robinson took a stab at drafting a pitch designed to entice writers in Tacoma to come check out the new Spokane (re: Thursday’s Slice).

“Come and see our beautiful river and falls … visit our 15 wine tasting rooms offering Spokane wines … try any one of our dozens of great restaurants … shop for any and everything … stay in our fantastic hotels … experience the opposite of Tacoma traffic and get your hands on the newspaper that publishes Paul Turner’s column!”

Life is old there, older than the trees: Coeur d’Alene’s Cathy Kraus has seen the Slice items about the vagaries of senior discounts. And she has a question.

“When did being 55 make you a senior?”

Cathy, that happened back when I was 54.

Today’s Little League memory: Dee Dee Morris was married to a guy who was in the Air Force. While he was stationed at a base near the southern tip of Florida in early 1960s, Cold War tensions, proximity to Cuba and other considerations prompted his B-52 group to relocate to a base in Michigan.

That left a certain Little League team without coaches. So Dee Dee and her friend, Irene, stepped up. “The other nine teams were all coached by Air Force dads,” she wrote.

Well, the team managed by the ladies finished in first place. And at the annual banquet, the men gave Dee Dee and Irene a rousing round of applause.

Warm-up question: What’s the 2013 version of “If we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to …”?

Today’s Slice question: If you had a Saturn V rocket ready for launch in your backyard or in the parking lot of your apartment building, what would you do with it?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. If you see John McTear, get him to tell some scrapple stories from his Philadelphia childhood.